Second Chances Reality: S is for Sam
by BlueRowley
Summary: Sam can't read and isn't entirely willing to learn. What can Harry and Severus do to convince Sam to learn how to read? A one-shot in the Second Chances Reality series.


A few of you wanted more one-shots with Sam involved and one reviewer suggested the idea of Harry and/or Severus teaching Sam how to read (at least English since neither can speak Japanese). I am so glad so many of you enjoy Sam's character! So, here is the attempt at teaching Sam how to read. Enjoy!

This story takes place on a weekend just after school has started back up in Harry's second year. It's pretty short, but I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter

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Sam happily gnawed on a deer femur bone (courtesy of begging Severus for one earlier on that week). He was in Severus's quarters in the living room, lying on his plush dog bed. He had already had a busy week – watching over Harry was an exhausting job. Don't get him wrong, Sam enjoyed his job working for the Snapes and he loved feeling as though he was a part of the family. But he also appreciated the times he had to himself. The door to the Severus's quarters opened and Sam looked up to see who was entering.

It was Harry.

"There you are, Sam," Harry smiled, carrying a stack of cards it looked like, along with a couple books. "Dad told me you didn't know how to read so I thought we could teach you how."

 _: You want to teach me how to read?_ Sam tilted his head as Harry sat down in front of the dog bed, dropping everything on the floor. _And for what gain?_

"So that you can read," Harry informed. "Reading's fun. You'll love it. And it's useful."

 _: Clearly not that useful if I've survived over three hundred years without it._

"Well, then it'll just be fun. Can you at least give it a try? For me?"

 _: Don't think those puppy eyes are going to work on me,_ Sam growled even as he looked away to avoid Harry's pleading look. Damn it, those eyes did work on him. Sam sighed before looking down at Harry's supplies. _Fine. You may teach me. I can't assure you that you'll be successful._

"Worth a shot. Okay, so we'll start with the alphabet. That's the best place to start. These cards each have a letter of the alphabet on them. We'll begin with this one. What's this look like to you?"

Sam tilted his head at the card with a strange 'A' figure on it. He frowned – he was sure he had seen that shape before . . .

 _: A tipi._

"What?" Harry turned the card over. "No, it's the letter 'a.' Where'd you get tipi?"

 _: You asked me what it looked like. That's what it looks like._

"No. This is 'a.' You pronounce it 'ei' as in 'and' or 'apple. Or 'ay' as in 'say' or 'okay.' See, it's not so hard. Now what's this one?"

Harry held up a card with the letter 'B.' Sam tilted his head once more before saying, _Sideways mountains._

"No, Sam! It's 'b!'" Harry exclaimed. "Buh as in 'boy' or 'bad.' What about this one?" Harry held up the next letter.

 _: A horseshoe_ , Sam decided, _also sideways._

"No! Dad! This isn't working!" Harry called out, frustratingly throwing the cards down.

"Harry, please don't yell," Severus's voice sounded from the man's study.

: _I told you you may not be successful_ , Sam said straightforwardly.

"But it's just the alphabet," Harry protested. "It's like any other alphabet in any other language. I mean, what's your alphabet?"

 _: My . . . alphabet?_

"Yeah, like the letters in your language. The Japanese alphabet. Maybe if you sing that, we can compare, and it might help."

Sam just stared at Harry. Alphabet? What did that word even mean? The boy was saying something about letters and singing. Hmm, this was trickier than he thought it would be. After a long moment, Harry seemed to grow more annoyed.

"Do you even know it?"

 _: I do not know what . . . alphabet means._

"Oh. Right. Well, it's like all the letters and sounds there are that makes all the words you can say. And there's usually a lot and you can sing them. A, B, C, D, E, F, G – like those. I can also sing it in Spanish – Ah, Be, Ce, Che, De, Eh, Efe. Uncle Remus taught me that. Do you have anything like that in your language?"

Sam tilted his head once more, his ears lifting and flopping over slightly. There was something like that in his language, but it wasn't really . . . an alphabet.

 _: A, I, U, E, O,_ Sam began, _ka, ki, ku, ke, ko._

"What?" Harry frowned.

 _: Sa, shi, su, se, so. Ta, chi, tsu, te, to. Na, ni, nu, ne, no._

"What is that? That doesn't sound like an alphabet."

 _: Probably because it isn't – not really, anyway._

"Well, that's not really going to help us, though the vowels might come in handy. Why don't you try singing the alphabet with me?"

 _: I don't sing._

"Well, then we can just say them as we go through them. Here."

Harry scattered the cards and laid them out on the floor in order. Sam sighed as he watched. The boy just didn't give up. He'd never learn to read. And he honestly didn't care if he ever did. Reading was of no importance to him. Once Harry was satisfied with his line of letters across the floor, he crawled back over to Sam and pointed to each one and saying the letter. Sam repeated what he said, though it was more memorization of the order the boy was saying the letters than actually knowing the letter's name.

"Having fun?" Severus asked when he came out of his study.

"Sam knows the alphabet now!" Harry proudly stated.

"Does he?" Severus raised an eyebrow. He stepped forward and picked up a letter somewhere in the middle of the line. "What's this Sam?"

The letter had a strange 'R' shape on it. Sam tilted his head before a smirk grew on his lips.

 _: You've got me. But I can recite them in order at least._

"Which won't help you in the slightest with reading," Severus said, handing the card to Harry who set it back.

"I thought we were doing so good," Harry pouted.

"You're doing fine, Harry," Severus said. "You can't learn to read in one night, forget ten minutes. Especially when someone is a less than stellar student."

 _: Hey, I'm trying,_ Sam argued.

"But not full-heartedly. I think we need to find a better reason for learning to read than simply enjoyment. Come with me, Sam."

Sam jumped up from his bed and followed Severus to the dining table, where he jumped up on a chair and placed his front paws up on the table to see what Severus was doing. Severus summoned parchment, a quill and ink set, and to Harry's surprise, a throwing knife. Sam gave Severus a curious look.

"Let's start simple," Severus said. "We know you can memorize the meaning of certain words as you've said yourself. So, memorizing the alphabet and letters shouldn't be hard. It's finding something you're interested in to get you to learn to put that skill to use. Have you ever seen your name written?"

 _: A couple times,_ Sam said.

Severus wrote Sam's name on a parchment, spelling out "Sam" and "Samuru."

"So, you recognize your name when you see it?" Severus clarified, passing the parchment over to Sam. Sam looked down at it. He knew his name, even if he had only seen it a few times.

 _: I recognize it._

"What about your father's name?" Severus pulled the parchment back over. "Akira, was it?"

Severus wrote down "Akira" before passing it back to Sam. Sam studied the name. There was that tipi letter again. He had never actually seen his father's name written in English. Akira was also the name of his youngest nephew. It looked . . . nice. He nosed the parchment over to Severus.

 _: What about Natsumi's?_

Severus blinked, then frowned. Sam waited patiently, staring at the quill in Severus's hand. Instead of writing the name, however, Severus pulled out his wand and waved it over the parchment, muttering "Natsumi." The name wrote itself on the parchment and Severus pushed I back over to Sam.

"I'd ask you how to spell it, but I doubt you would have answered it for me."

Sam stared down at his sister's name. Hers was very pretty.

"Before you ask me to do anymore," Severus said, "don't you think it might be nice to know your family's names when you see them written down. It might actually turn useful."

 _: Perhaps. Could you do my last name? Ishimori._

"Like I have any idea how to correctly spell it."

 _: Here,_ Sam reached over and took the quill in his jaws gently, keeping his head tilted as he adjusted the parchment. He set a paw down on it to keep it still as he moved his mouth in the correct pattern, saying, _I know how to write my last name._

Harry joined them at the table to watch Sam, sitting in the chair across from the fox and looking down at the parchment. He frowned when Sam was halfway through. Severus rolled his eyes as he watched the name appear in large . . . characters. They were a bit sloppy, but the fox couldn't help that.

石森

 _: There, Ishimori_ , Sam said, dropping the quill.

"Well, that definitely helps me learn how to spell it. When you can read on your own, I hope you'll be able to make the correct translations and write the names yourself."

"Wait," Harry's frown deepened. "I don't get how that says "Ishimori.""

 _: Oh, simple,_ Sam used a paw to make the quill flip slightly to catch in his teeth once more. He made a circle around the first character. _This is stone – ishi._ Sam circled the top figure of the three looks alike. _This is tree – ki, but together,_ Sam circled all of the characters, _they make woods – mori._

"That's brilliant!" Harry smiled. "Can you do my name?"

 _: Well, that's a bit complicated . . ._

"And completely irrelevant," Severus interrupted, giving his son a pointed look. "We are teaching Sam to read English, remember."

"But he can't even read his own language."

 _: I know enough,_ Sam said. _Just not an entire dictionary. Simple words._

"So, your last name means stone woods?" Harry asked. "Does that mean something to you?"

 _: To me? No. But it was the birthplace of my grandfather many years ago when my great grandparents travelled to China. Naigu Stone Forest, as it is called today. Appropriately named._

"Why do you say that?"

 _: The stone formation there. Quite a beautiful geographic location if you ask me. My grandfather returned there quite often, but he still made his home in Japan._

"Well," Severus said, "now that we know a bit more about Sam, shall we continue?"

Severus picked up the throwing knife.

"I know you know what this is," Severus said.

 _: Of course._

"Written, it looks like this," Severus wrote down "knife" on a clean parchment. "See? And this . . ."

Severus summoned Sam's own tanto from where the fox kept it under his dog bed. He wrote "tanto" down on the parchment under "knife," saying, "would look like that."

Sam stared with interest at the words.

"I also have a book," Severus summoned the book in question to himself, dropping it in front of Sam, "about the many new strategies and defensive techniques using a tanto such as yours or throwing knives. And much more."

Severus flipped through the book casually while Sam watched and waited to see the book himself. Severus had gotten Sam books as such before, simply throwing a read a-loud spell on it before giving it to the fox to learn from. However, Sam had a feeling he wouldn't be given such a spell this time.

"Of course," Severus set the book aside. "If you're not too interested in reading, I guess I can return the book. Those read a-loud spells get tiring after a while."

Sam growled at Severus, his ears falling back. This was bribery at its best. Sam sighed. There would be no harm in learning to at least read English – he knew enough Japanese to get by and spoke the language fluently. But English was another story. He didn't really know any words. And that book could teach him so much – not that he needed to learn more, but the same old moves did get boring . . . and predictable.

 _: Fine. Let's begin._

"Excellent. We'll start with actually learning the letters and then go from there. I think I still have a few of Harry's kid books with beginner sentences to learn from."

Severus gave Sam a parchment and summoned the cards on the floor and stacked them.

"I'll show you the card, you'll say the letter with me and write it down on the parchment. We'll do that for each letter."

 _: How many times?_

Severus gave one of his evil professor smiles.

"Until you know them all by heart."

: _Wonderful,_ Sam snarled but picked up the quill in his teeth. Severus picked up the first card with 'A' and the lesson began.

"Do you want me to help?" Harry asked.

"I'll take it from here, Harry. I know you have homework you could be working on."

"Only one professor gave out homework on the first week of classes."

"Smart professor," Severus commented, smirking at his son.

Harry sighed dramatically, but left his father's quarters to find his friends.

3 Months Later:

Sam sat on his dog bed, reviewing the process of disarming an opponent from behind. This defensive strategy book was perfect! And now that he could read on his own, he found that he could learn from the book at a faster rate and go over some chapters repeatedly instead of just once. So, Severus had been right: reading was useful. And while he still came across several words he struggled to pronounce or understand, it was improvement nonetheless.

"Glad to see you enjoying the book," Severus said as he entered the living room from his study. "You're a fast learner, Sam."

 _: Thank you. I'm just glad to finally have the book._

"You know, the only thing left for you to learn now is how to write in English."

 _: And I can assure you, there is nothing you possible have that can persuade me to want to learn how to write._

"Really?"

 _: You better not have anything!_ Sam growled as his mind raced to think of all the reasons Severus might come up with. What use was there in knowing how to write? Forgery? When would he have a need for that? What else was there?

"I'm sure I'll think of something," Severus said. "Perhaps communication for when you do leave my son and I permanently? What a shame it would be after all of these years and never hear a word from you again when Harry graduates."

Sam snarled under his breath at that. Yes, he would be free of the unbreakable vow by the time Harry graduates and he would have to be on his way back home (he couldn't stay with the Snapes forever - besides, he'd out live them), but what would Harry think of him if he never heard from him again?

Severus had him there.

Damn meddling wizard.

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I hope you liked it!


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